Anniversary Trip - Day 3

Yesterday was SUCH a busy day. Our longest yet. We did about 11 hours worth of walking and other than my feet being incredibly sore at the end of the day, I held up great! I've been very proud of myself for not being held back by pregnancy.

Our first stop was the Library of Congress. It was by far my favorite thing we did yesterday. There are actually three buildings to the library, but we only toured the main one, the Thomas Jefferson building.

All of the doorways and archways had quotes about education, literature, etc., above them.

"Give instruction unto those who cannot procure it for themselves."

(Of course I got a picture of this: I'm a teacher!)

This picture does not do justice to the foyer of the library.

After the lobby, you really couldn't take pictures of anything. There was no photography permitted in the exhibits. I think my favorite thing we saw was Thomas Jefferson's personal library (Ashley, you would have LOVED it!), and trust me it was about the size of a small town's library. Jefferson must have spent every dime he owned on books.

We saw original drafts of the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence, complete with proofing marks. We also saw letters between states and founding fathers.

We also saw all pages of Christopher Columbus' diary, early world and "Western" maps, artifacts from the Mayan civilization.

I feel like there was so much more we saw. It's so hard to remember when we couldn't take pictures, and we're both on information overload at this point. I'll probably come back and add to these lists as I remember!

The United States Supreme Court

The Capitol Building

This was the plaster model of the Statue of Freedom that sits on top of the Capitol's dome.

The last time either Wesley or I visited the Capitol was pre-9/11, and things were sooo different! I remember wandering through with my group. That did NOT happen this time!

The first stop on our tour was the Crypt. It's a room directly beneath the Rotunda and the Capitol Dome. It was designed with housing the tomb of George Washington in mind, but he's never been buried there. His body lies at Mt. Vernon.

This white spot was designed (although it isn't actually) so that it would be the center of the city.

Next we moved up a floor to the Rotunda. It was kind of crazy to be in there and see all the "important people" (I didn't see any senators/representatives I recognized) walking around, obviously busy at work.

This is the ceiling, the dome, of the Rotunda.

While these pictures are pretty, they do nothing to really capture the stunningness of the room.

Moving down the ceiling and wall.

A view of a small portion of the room.

The circle is the center of the room and is where bodies that are lain in state go (JFK, Reagan, Rosa Parks, Ford...to name a few). We also saw the catafalque, which is the table that the coffins are laid on, but weren't allowed to take pictures of it.

Next, we went into the old House Chamber. This room is kind of small, but has crazy acoustics. There are places in the room where you can stand and here someone whispering from across the room!

The room also has statues of famous men from each of the states. The states are allowed to choose who they honor.

I forgot this man's name, but he's from Florida and is considered the father of refrigeration and air conditioning - I'm a big fan of him! : )

This is VERY blurry because another tour group was walking by when I tried to get a picture. Wesley got a picture, and I'll update with his once we get home, but this is the office of Nancy Pelosi. I never saw her, but saw her personal police officer stationed out front!

We wanted to tour the Senate and House, but were unable to because of the huge masses of people!

The Old Post Office

Everyone's favorite building....The Internal Revenue Service

After this, we headed to the American Museum of Natural History. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures here. The museum was very interesting, but it was SO CROWDED that it was uncomfortable and not nearly as enjoyable as I think it could have been.

But, they did have a thing that took your picture to show you what you would have looked like as cavemen! Haha, here we are! : )

We also saw several fossils, including dinosaurs!

Day 3 concluded with our trip to the Museum of American History - which was so much fun!